Let's Move Blog

National School Lunch Week is a great time to remember the important role that healthy meals play in our daily lives. Parents, teachers, kids, schools and communities – there’s a way for everyone to take action and get engaged with Let’s Move!

A key part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative to combat childhood obesity, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) will help revitalize neighborhoods by eliminating “food deserts,” locations with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, within seven years. Food desert communities are typically served by inexpensive restaurants and convenience stores that offer little or no fresh food. A study by the U.S.

An integral part of the Let’s Move! initiative is gaining a critical boost when it comes to solving the challenge of childhood obesity and improving the health and nutrition of all Americans. Today, USDA is proud to announce new investments that will help connect farms with families at the local level by providing grants to local farmers markets, producers, and farmers. Farmers markets across the country help families make the right choice when it comes to fresh produce and foods by bringing their harvest right to our communities.

We’re continuing our celebration of National School Lunch Week with another easy and delicious recipe. If you have a favorite lunch recipe, join the conversation on the Let’s Move! Facebook page and enter the Recipes for Healthy Kids competition.

I recently attended a workshop held by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) to educate pediatric health care providers about prescribing outdoor activities to children and families as part of their Children and Nature Initiative. As a pediatrician working in Washington, DC, I see many patients that face chronic illness as a direct consequence of childhood obesity. Many of today’s children have become creatures of the indoors, spending countless hours in front of TV and computer screens, to the detriment of their physical and mental health.

This week is the 65 anniversary of the National School Lunch Program, which has more than 31 million participating children and is aimed at preventing hunger and promoting education by providing students access to safe, balanced and affordable meals at school.

Posted by Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General on October 12, 2010

Since becoming Surgeon General, I’ve led fitness walks across the nation – from Baltimore to Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon. But it was a special treat for me when I traveled back to my home state of Alabama to lead a 1.2 mile walk in Mobile with more than 200 residents.

Getting 60 minutes of play every day is important and yesterday students from several Washington, DC elementary schools got their 60 minutes on the south lawn at the White House. As part of the ongoing South Lawn Series, players from the DC United soccer team led the kids in drills and games, showing them just how fun exercise can be. The students ran, jumped, kick soccer balls and ended the day with apples as a healthy snack.